


Thunderstorms and Lightning

by BlackKittens



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Babysitting, Brothers, Short & Sweet, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 22:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackKittens/pseuds/BlackKittens
Summary: "This was why he liked babysitting Hiro. The kid had some amazing ideas - both for inventions and whatever this was."Ten year old Hiro wants lightning to strike the house. Tadashi is amused.





	Thunderstorms and Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> I had the urge to write the Hamada brothers and this popped out. It was fun!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Tadashi was stuck on babysitting duty tonight.

It wasn’t that big of a deal; one could argue that babysitting duty was a regular part of his life, because Hiro was so much younger than him and Aunt Cass was often too busy with the café to watch him full time. Tadashi didn’t mind. He had his free time without the runt, and Hiro was a bright, lovable runt, so it didn’t bother him the way watching their younger siblings did his high school friends.

Aunt Cass had run out an hour ago to so some emergency shopping. The truck that normally delivered all the baking and cooking ingredients for The Lucky Cat was apparently being delayed a couple days due to a management mistake at the supplier company, and Aunt Cass was _ furious. _ They had a modest amount to left over to last them the three days, but she was worried about running out of certain items and losing money, so a small part of their savings were being used to stock up until the truck finally got here. Tadashi didn’t expect her back for at least another hour or two. He did expect her to still be ranting when she did.

For now, he and Hiro were holed up in the living room as a harsh thunderstorm raged outside. It cackled and boomed in the sky, with the occasional lightning strike hitting the earth, making the mesmerized Hiro’s eyes light up and mouth drop in awe at the window. Tadashi, meanwhile, used the pouring rain as a pleasant white noise background to help him finish his SFIT application on his laptop on the couch.

“Cooool,” the ten year old all but whispered as another stroke of lightning touched down. “It’s really close to our house, isn’t it, Tadashi? I keep counting in my head and don’t get that far before another one flashes! Think it’ll hit our house?”

Tadashi didn’t deign to look up from his application; the sheer hope and excitement in his little brother’s voice was enough to tell him he didn’t want to. “Anything’s possible. Doubt it, though.”

“Ahh, why _ not?” _ Hiro whined.

Tadashi bit back a chuckle. Only his little brother would be disappointed lightning wasn’t likely to hit their house. “Because it’s not probable. Lightning doesn’t usually hit houses. It _ can, _ but it usually doesn’t. That’s why it’s best to stay indoors during a storm, and not outside or under a tree. You’re more likely to get struck there.”

“Even though we have metal in the house?” he sounded like the saddest child in the world.

Tadashi struggled to hold back a smile; he partially failed. “Yup. Sorry, little brother, the house probably won’t catch fire tonight. Which is good, because the café would burn down and we’d be homeless. We’d have to live under the Golden Gates bridge to survive.”

“I don’t want the house to burn down,” Hiro grunted, and Tadashi could easily imagine his stubborn, pouty face. “I want lightning to strike it. It’ll be so cool! The house’ll be - ENVELOPED in lightning!”

“Enveloped,” Tadashi nodded, losing the good fight and smiling widely at his screen. “Is that one of your new vocab words at school?”

A brief silence, where he assumed Hiro was nodding. “Uh-huh. Don’t you think it would be cool if the house was completely covered in lightning, big brother? You’d look out the window and there’d just be this BLINDING light outside! You know, we could use the lightning as a shield against zombies.”

Tadashi choked back a laugh. This was why he liked babysitting Hiro. The kid had some amazing ideas - both for inventions and whatever this was. His brother was fun to listen to talk. “Oh, there’s zombies out there now? Aunt Cass better make it home fast.”

A sudden bounce and weight on the cushion next to him told him his brother was sitting next to him, probably glaring from the sound of his voice. “No, you big dumby! If zombies ever DO come to life, they’ll break into everybody’s houses and kill them! We should HARNESS - that’s another vocab word by the way - the lightning to make a defense wall! Wouldn’t that be awesome!?”

“Very awesome,” Tadashi agreed, his smile widening from ear to ear. “Too bad it’s not going to happen. Lightning’s not likely to hit the house and you don’t have the tools to harness it. Ah well, little brother.”

“I can make the tools,” Hiro told him confidently. “Then we’ll harness the lightning and make a zombie defense wall. No zombies’ll eat our brains when they come.”

“You mean they won’t eat my and Aunt Cass’ brains, right?”

A small hand slapped his shoulder hard. “Just for that, you don’t get to help!”

Tadashi had to laugh out loud. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t feed me to the zombies!”

“We’ll see!” Hiro jumped up off the couch. In seconds, Tadashi heard his feet pounding up the stairs to their room. “First I gotta make something metal to take to the roof! I’m catching the lightning if it’s the last thing I do, big brother!”

Tadashi started, face falling.

Wait, what?

He was serious, about going up on the roof, wasn't he?

Tadashi scooted his laptop onto the cushions and leaped up, darting for the stairs and swinging around up them. “Hiro, you’re not allowed on the roof! You’ll DIE, you little weirdo!”

And now he remembered why his friends didn’t like babysitting their younger siblings.

Arguably, though, at least babysitting Hiro was more interesting - stopping one’s little brother from potentially killing himself during a storm in order to save the family from an impending zombie invasion was a way more fun story to tell than how one’s sibling wouldn’t give up the TV remote.

(And his college friends would DEFINITELY laugh about it in a few years, to the future fourteen year old's irritation - Well, until Fred mentioned that it was a great idea and they should totally try it out for real.)


End file.
